Nessie Hunt
by TalaMermaid
Summary: Skulduggery and Valkyrie are called up to Scotland to help deal with a threat, the Loch Ness monster.
1. Chapter 1

**_First chapter. The oc's will be used in the next chapter. Btw the Beth Shadows in this is loosely based on me but not that much. _**

* * *

"So what do they want us for?"

Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery Pleasant were walking through the hallway of the Irish Sanctaury in Roarhaven.

"I don't know."

"Skulduggery you were on the phone with Ghastly for half an hour disscussing it."

"I know, but you see my new hat had a rather dusty dent in it, probabaly from the case two days ago and it took half an hour to sort it out. I was partly listening though and he said something about Scottland, a loch,a monster and something else."

"Great." Valkyrie rolled her eyes and started whistling a tune she had heard on the radio earlier.

Skulduggery snapped his palm up against the air and the doors to the throne room flew open. He strode a head on Valkyrie and bowed mockinly infront of his friends and not so friend, taking his hat off. All dramatics as usual.

"What galient quest do you have for us your majesties?"

"I told you on the phone." Ghastly raised his eyebow at him.

The skeleton stood up and placed his hat back on his head.

"Of course you did your highness but ,you see I had to sort out my hat."

"So Ravel, Ghastly, Mist," She added the last name hestintley," what is our next mission?"

"You are to travel to Scotland and assissit in an important matter up there."

"Why?"

"Well a while ago they did us a favour and we're simply retuning the favour with you guys." Ravel told them, smiling.

"Riiiight. So what do we have to do?"

Ravel looked over to Mist. She nodded curtly and tapped something on the arm of her chair

A tall, dark haired girl appeared in front of them, shadows melting off her black clothes.

"Skulduggery, Valkyrie this is Beth Shadows."

"Where's Acqa?" Ravel asked the girl.

"She's waiting in the car." Beth shrugged and pulled two files from her coat.

"This contains what you guys need to know for the mission." She handed them to Valkyrie, who handed one to Skulduggery.

"Aww, I hate reading. It's boring." Valkyrie moaned.

"Hush Valkyrie."

"When do we leave?"

Beth looked to Ravel.

"Go and pack, then head off. Now away with yous, this is Elder time."

"Have fun!"

Skulduggery lead the way out the door while Valkyrie fell in stride with Beth.

Out in the street the black 1954 Bentley R-Type Continetal was parked, not a scracth on the black paintwork as it shone dully in the weak sun. A few metres up parked was a black BMW Z4 Roadster, a faint figure could be seen inside.

"I see you're keeping with the all black necromancer theme." Valkyrie remarked.

"Yup,black clothes and black car, you should see my house, its got a lot of black in it as well."

It was true, her feet were covered by long black boots that stopped a bit below her knee, her legs by black skinny jeans, and her upper body by a black top and an open black jacket that came halfway down her thighs.

"Who's that Acqa that his royal highness was talking about?"

"Emily Acqa, she's an elemental, she's a ... to be honest I don't actually know what her job is. She always seems to find a way around work, everytime I see her she's on her phone, doing something or other."

"So she's a slacker then?"

"Yup. I know mages much younger than her, who's done more work in a month than she has in her whole life."

Valkyrie laughed.

"So, Beth, do you want to follow behind us to Haggard or meet you somewhere?"

"I'll meet you at the ferry terminal."

"Aren't we taking the plane?"

"Nah, the Grand Mage booked ferry tickets, said it was cheaper."

"Righto, when does the ferry leave?"

"In three hours, but we have to be there half an hour before, for boarding."

"Ok, meet you there in two and a bit hours."

Skulduggery and Valkyrie went into the Bentley and Beth into the BMW.

Two hours later Valkyrie and Skulduggery were heading to the ferry terminal, Skulduggery with his facade up,a handsome man with sea green eyes, pale skin and curly brown hair.

Valkyrie reach forward and turned the radio up.

_All my life I've been good but now_

_I'm thinking what the hell_

_All I want is to mess around and I_

_don't really care about_

Skulduggery reached out and turned it off.

"Hey, I like that song!"

Valkyrie reached out and turned it back on_._

_What_

_What_

_What_

_What the hell?_

_So what if I go out on a million dates?_

_(yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)_

_You never call or listen to me anyway_

_(yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)_

"That's quite enough." Skulduggery turned it off again.

Valkyrie reached out to turn it on again, but Skulduggery suddenly swerved the Bently and Valkyrie went flying to the side.

"Oww! What was that for?"

"We're there." Skulduggery pulled up beside Beth, parked facing the sea.

"Here's your tickets."

She handed him two tickets through the window.

"Me and Emily'll see you guys on board. Then it's off to Scotland to see Nessie!"

* * *

**Sorry it's quite short but the next chapter should be a bit longer.**


	2. Chapter 2

Some Oc's are used in this chapter and the rest will be introduced in the next chapter. I justy skipped the whole ferry trip to get on with the story.

"Ok, first things first, I'd better introduce to some people. Probably the Grand Mage first, then maybe the Elders and a few of the transfers from various Sanctuaries and a few of our agents."

"Any of them not boring?" Skulduggery asked.

"Skulduggery!" Valkyrie elbowed him in the ribs only to hurt her elbow.

Beth laughed.

"Quite a few of them are rather interesting."

"Good, good."

Down at the loch, various vans were parked, and sorcerers were standing about or marking areas out near the shore.

"Come on, we'd better find the Grand Mage."

Beth lead the way past some sorcerers and a group of cleavers. Standing beside a black van was a tall woman with auburn hair, a man with steel grey hair and a Cleaver.

"Hey Rita*, hey Venator."

The woman smiled and waved while the man remained still.

"Glad to see you back, Beth."

"Skulduggery, Valkyrie this is Grand Mage Zarita Sway."

Valkyrie smiled at her while Skulduggery tilted his head and looked from Beth to Sway.

"You two are related?" Skulduggery said it as more of a statement than a question.

"Yes." Beth replied.

Skulduggery looked again. Same hair, similar bone structure, not much of an age gap, if looks were anything to go by.

"I'm guessing sisters."

"Yes."

"Mr Pleasant, Miss Cain, this is Elder Venator." Zarita gestured to the man beside her.

His skin was slightly wrinkled, his steel grey hair matched his eyes and his trimmed beard. He regarding them with an emotionless gaze. He reminded Valkyrie of Baron Venegous. (I forget how to spell his last name all the time)

"So are you guys one of the quite few interesting and non boring ones here?" Skulduggery asked.

"You could say that." Sway responded with a light laugh.

"In what ways are you interesting?"

"Skulduggery, it is not an interrogation." Valkyrie glared at the walking pile of bones.

He turned to Valkyrie, "Oh well," He then turned back to Sway and Venator, "as I was asking before I was rudely interrupted, what makes you guys interesting?"

"My last name is Sway, my power relates to that. I can ... if you like sway people's minds. I can make anyone do what ever I tell them to."

Venetor's answer was much more straightforward.

"I am a Warlock."

"A Warlock?"

"Yes."

"A Warlock?"

"Yes."

"A War..."

Valkyrie was cut off.

"Just be quiet and accept that fact that we have a warlock on our council." Sway cut in.

Valkyrie just nodded, a slightly vacant look in her eyes.

"I think we'd better go meet some of the others." Beth slowly started edging away.

"Yes, I think that'd be wise." Sway smiled.

Beth led them past more sorcerers, down to the loch. Sitting by the shore ,back to them, on a rock, was a girl with curly black hair. Her black jacket and black boots were sitting beside her, from where they were it seemed to made of lots of shiny pieces of some sort of leathery material. The purple shirt on her arm was sleeveless and showed her pale arms.

"By the way don't say anything about her eyes, they're a bit odd but don't mind them." Beth whispered to them.

"Ok," Valkyrie said slowly.

The girl stood up and turned around. Her bare feet were dripping water onto the shore. The leggings she wore were made of the same material as her boots and jacket. Her eyes were a similar shade of purple to her shirt. Her eyes were slightly larger than the normal human and the pupil was a slit with a diamond top and bottom and a half diamond sticking out on either side in the middle, the iris was a purple colour and the ring around her iris was more black than purple. She had a smattering of freckles over her nose and cheeks and her lips were covered in a shiny purple lip gloss.

"Valkyrie, Skulduggery, this is Joanna Ender."

The girl, Joanna, smiled shyly at them.

Skulduggery looked closely at her eyes, the shape of the pupil.

"I'm guessing by the shape of your eyes that you are a Dragon Blood?"

Valkyrie looked at Skulduggery.

"How are you telling everything about everyone?"

"I'm not telling everything. Anyway the shape of a Dragon Blood's eyes are very distinct."

"He's right. I am a Dragon Blood."

"See Valkyrie."

"Whatever."

"She's just annoyed that she's never heard of a Dragon Blood and I'm getting all the statements I say right. So for Valkyrie's sake, what is a Dragon Blood?"

Joanna swallowed nervously.

"A Dragon Blood is a type of magic passed down through genetics. The user can choose certain aspects of a dragon at time or even completely transform into a dragon."

"Cool, so can you breathe fire?" Valkyrie asked excitedly.

"Yes, I can."

"Can you show us?"

"Not right now, we have others to meet. Like your combat accessory, Darius Valentine." Beth cut in

"Right."

"Do you know where he is?"

"I think he's over with Reagan and Sasha and Elder Streak."

"Damn it. Hey could you introduce them, Troy still hasn't forgiven me."

"Alright."

Valkyrie and Skulduggery followed the Dragon Blood towards a group of people. Two male, two female. The first of the males was of dark brown colouring, with shaven black hair. The second had combed back dark blonde hair. The two females were facing them, one had black hair pulled back into a ponytail while the other had light chestnut hair with a small black streak running through the front.

Valkyrie was about to ask why Troy hadn't forgiven Beth but then ...

The blonde man turned around and saw the three walking towards them.

"Ah, Joanna, I thought it was supposed to be Beth or Emily showing the Irish Detectives around."

Valkyrie took an immediate dislike to the man, he was all smiles and expertly done hair.

"Beth will be continuing to show these two around in a while."

"Pleasant, Cain these are two of our detectives and our interrogator. Sasha Black, one of our detectives," He gestured to the woman with the black ponytail.

"Great to finally meet you." Valkyrie could tell she was from somewhere in Europe.

"Darius Valentine,a detective in training."

The first man with the black shaven hair, smiled and gave Valkyrie wink. She couldn't help but blush a little.

"Reagan Host, our interagator."

"Hiya." Out of all the group the only one who really sounded Scottish was Troy. Reagan's accent was more of a Welsh. Darius they hadn't heard say anything but judging by his colouring they could make a wild guess.

"Are you guys some on the interesting one or some of the none interesting ones?"

"Skulduggery." Valkyrie hissed at her walking, skeletal friend.

"No one here at the Scottish Sanctuary is non- interesting."

The other three laughed at Streak.

He gave them a look. The two females continued laughing while Darius canned it in.

"We have a wide varity of powes and personalities here, ranging from Dragon Blood, to Enchantress, to Remnant holder to ... well me."

Every time he opened his mouth Valkyrie found herself hating him more and more, he was like a non-psychopathic, possibly more annyoing, Scottish Sanguine with eyes, so essentially nothing like Sanguine.

"What are you then,Streak?"

"I have superspeed."

Skulduggery just ignored him, finding nothing intersting about superspeed.

"You said you have a Remnant Holder?"

"Yes, we do. Miss Host here"

He waved his hand over to her.

"Here comes Emily and Kurt."

Darius waved over to the blonde elemental and a braod shouldered man walking beside her. Emily gave them the cold shoulder but Kurt seemed friendlier.

"Great to meet you. I am a huge fan." He streched his hand out to shake the skeleton's hand. Skulduggery just stared at the outstreched hand.

"Skulduggery." Valkyrie jabbed her finger between his ribs.

"Ow."

He reluctantly streched out his hand shook Kurt's hand.

"Always great to meet a fan." His usual velevet voice was montomous and almost robotic.

Sasha opened her mouth to say something when a loud splashing noise from the loch reached their ears, a very loud splashing and roaring noise.

A large, blue green head covered in some sort of green slime and various lumps broke the surface, a long, thick, blubbery neck supporting the head. It moved towards the shore as the water got shallower and shallower more and more of the beast was revealed.

It's front feet were large and webbed, topped with blunt claws, it's body was was long and the spine was visible jutting out in various places, giving a hump like apperance.

When the webbed front feet touched the ground its large eyes, covered in some sort of flims surveyed them and flaps over the nostrils flapped against the smooth skin of its nose. It opened its mouth revelaing yellowed, pointed teeth, a flat serpent like tongue and a breath that could rival a dump site, before letting out a loud roar.

Everyone froze. It looked around again with its large eyes and let out another roar. With no one moving or doing anything, its attention was fading. It let out a weaker roar before turning around, and waded back into the water, a thick powerful tail swung out behind it, whacking into a van parked too close the water sending iit flying across the ground.

The creature moved gracefully in the water ducking under leaving only ripples to show it had ever been there.

Things quickly got going then, the creature needed to be hidden and silenced. They were already in heating water, with what just occured. so a plan was set in motion.

A cloaking sphere was produced and set up along the shore line of the loch.

Sorcerers and Cleavers were rushing aboat all over the place.

"So what is the actual plan here?" Skulduggery asked, looking at everyine else flapping about like birds. It was rather _humerous. _

"I don't think they have a proper plan in place." Sasha told them.

"I'll go ask Rita."

Beth cut across a pile of sorceres to the van that had been flung away.

Zarita and Venator and three cleavers were inspecting the damage, well Venator was. The three cleavers stood facing the loch, while Zarita was on her phone, annoyed.

"What was that about?" Beth asked when Sway hung up.

"Teller,Eanchainn and Peirce have gotten held up in a traffic jam. They won't be here for another two hours at most."

"Great, so we basically now just have to cover the whole loch and wait."

"Yes. We'll get Cleavers on the far side, left and right sides and sorcerers on the near side here. Meanwhile I'll sent Dacia* out to cover any mess with mortals."

Beth nodded.

"I'll get a quick rota drawn up so no one falls asleep on the job. Hopefully Nessie won't appear again for a while."

"Let's hope."

* Zarita's nickname is Rita so that's what Beth calls her.

* I'll introduce Dacia next chapter along with Teller, Eachainn and Peirce.


End file.
